Green girding for shot at Westbrook

The Spurs battled Chris Paul with a variety of defenders in their recent sweep over the Los Angeles Clippers. Tony Parker, Kawhi Leonard, Manu Ginobili and Danny Green all got their shots at challenging Paul.

Green came up with two key stops late in the game, causing a turnover and a missed shot on two of the Clippers’ final three possessions. His strength and length helped him in that matchup with Paul and should benefit him in a challenge against Oklahoma City’s point guard Russell Westbrook.

“As a guard here, you gotta be ready to guard any perimeter player,” Green said. “At any given moment, with a transition team like Oklahoma City, you’re going to end up on somebody that’s probably out of your position.”

And because of the Thunder’s lethal transition game, Green expects to see Westbrook often.

“They run so much, you just have to find a guy, pick up and talk it out,” Green said. “For the most part, I’m probably going to have a possession on everybody. You have to be prepared to guard anybody.”

But Westbrook, who averaged 23.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game to earn second-team All-NBA honors with Parker, provides some unique challenges.,

“He’s very explosive and scores in bunches,” Green said. “He’s very good at getting to the elbow and knocking down that pull-up jumper. He’s very athletic and can get to the rim. He puts a lot of pressure on defenses pushing the basketball.”

Controlling Westbrook will be critical in grounding the Thunder’s running game.

“Their whole team is very fast-break oriented,” Green said. “We have to do a good job of getting back in transition and slowing him down.”